(News Feature)ASEAN not ready yet to have single currency

MANILA-- Having one currency note to be use by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is not yet feasible in this point in time.

Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for ASEAN Affairs Ma. Helen dela Vega said Asean was not yet ready to duplicate what the European Union (EU) had done.

Most members of the ASEAN are still considered developing countries and Philippines is one of them, dela Vega said in an exclusive interview with the Philippine News Agency at the sidelines of Joint Consultative Meeting of the ASEAN 2017 at the Philippine International Convention Center Thursday.

She said EU members have almost on equal level of gross national product and they were considered rich countries in that part of the world.

However, she said, still EU had not perfected Euro as their common currency and there were some glitches needed to be address.

She even cited London who refused to use Euro as their currency and continue to use Pounds as their currency.

Take a look at London, they are the richest among EU members but refused to follow what they have agreed upon, she pointed out.

Now, London has decided to leave EU as member-country, she stressed.

Dela Vega is not discounting the possibility of duplicating what EU had done in the future but before ASEAN will give weight on this, they want first to improve the status of being a developing country to developed country in the future.

That was why, she said, in ASEAN, they already removed tariff to all commodities to make it affordable to consumers and continue transfer of technology to help each other grow faster and compete globally. They also remove visas to all ASEAN-member who want to visit their country to boost tourism.

She noted that the whole world is now watching ASEAN because they foresee the big and fast development of member �countries who had been very vocal on how they can share to boost the morale of every member.

She added that the whole world was steadily watching ASEAN as they already projected that in this part of world would be the next tiger economy globally.

The reason, dela Vega said, we have a common goal to improved not only trade and commerce, but also enhancing regional security, exchange of culture and many more that will make ASEAN the next region you can be proud of.

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